It definitely shows Pentax is now competitive in an area of the market that peaked about 4 years ago.

"An area of the market that peaked about 4 years ago", my pancreas. People still want fast cameras now for the same reasons they did then. "The market" didn't move away from providing that; two particular companies did, and they left a lot of angry and disappointed customers behind by doing so.

I assume your rationale for saying this is that the K-3 is a crop camera in a world moving toward full frame. But it has nothing to do with sensor size: when it comes to quickness, the current full frame offerings from the big two are no less lacking than their crop offerings, even at twice the price of the K-3... which is positioned directly at the level where the big two do actively sell lots of crop bodies.